THE EXTENT OF ACHIEVING THE MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

Abstract

52 years after independence and given the huge natural and human endowment, Nigeria which was one of the 50 richest countries in the early 1970s has retrogressed to become one of the 25th poorest countries at the threshold of the twenty first century (Soludo, 2006). At the same time, has the 3rd largest number of poor population after China and India (Ogunmola and Badmus, 2010). This situation is not peculiar to Nigeria but to all Third World Countries which is synonymous with poverty, ignorance, and diseases. This circumstance has been predominant even right from the oil boom era in the country. According to Udeh (2000), the proportion of the population living in poverty increased from 36% in 1970 to 64.4% in 2004. In sub Saharan Africa (SSA), for example, the number of people living in absolute poverty, i.e. living on US $1 or less per day, soared from 217 million in 1990 to 290 million in 2000 (Economic Commission for Africa, 2005). Also, the rate of poverty went up from 41% in 1981 to 46% 2001 coupled with the growing number of population.